Automatic cars, known for effortless driving, are gaining popularity among urban buyers. Earlier, the majority of the customers opting for automatic cars were luxury car or SUV buyers. The automotive industry saw a positive trend of people opting for automatic transmissions even in cars like the Hyundai i10 and i20, Maruti A-star and Dzire, Honda City and Volkswagen Vento. Around 20 per cent of customers who traditionally preferred manual gearboxes are now opting for automatics. The shift in favour of automatics is gradual but clear.
Automatic transmission cars have only two pedals, brake and throttle, and the lack of impending gear changes reduces driving stress or effort by 60 per cent. Congested city roads and heavy traffic can be nearly stress-free when driving an automatic. Rising traffic density and the stop-and-go commuting is affecting customer choice.
Maruti Suzuki was the pioneer for the small car automatic option it had launched for M800 in 1987. Now, it offers automatic gearboxes in the Dzire and A-star at the 'budget' end of its range. Honda, one of the first companies to launch an automatic sedan, Honda City, is witnessing a huge rise in demand for automatics. The automatic share in City sales is about 21 per cent ; for the Civic it is 32 per cent whereas it is above 60 per cent in premium offerings like the Accord and the CR-V.
The automatic revolution was ushered into India by BMW and Audi, who launched only automatic cars in India. They say that these cars are mostly chauffeur driven and automatics are more comfortable and smooth compared to manuals.
With automatic sales picking up, the price difference between the two transmissions has narrowed. The latest advancements in the automatic transmission technology has improved efficiencies and has helped companies to convince customers to look at automatics as a viable option. Ford even offers a 240,000km/10-year warranty on its Fiesta's automatic gearbox, along with fuel efficiency that nearly matches the manual's figures. With this sort of confidence, it isn't hard to imagine more and more consumers making the automatic choice.
